Snapper's fists clenched for a moment as though it were an impulsive tick.
"Hey, guys! We found something!" Amber said as the rest of the group emerged from the kitchen area and gradually approached us.
She showed us the same bloody handkerchief that Mel used at the station earlier today.
"This was Mel's, right? I remember her using it at the station. This proves that she was here, doesn't it?"
"That bastard, Larg, was really behind all of this. We must find him immediately," Barshall said.
Amber's expression changed the moment she saw May, who was sitting against the wall with her body curled into a ball.
"What happened? Is everything alright?" She seemed to have also noticed how tense the atmosphere was.
"See for yourself," Snapper replied, as he moved out of the doorway, allowing everyone else to see it.
Amber's hand immediately covered her mouth in pure shock, and I could tell that Barshall's mind was beginning to spin with utter confusion.
"W-what is the meaning of this!?" he said.
"It seems Larg may not have been our culprit after all…" Jude said. "I'm sorry."
He attempted to place a comforting hand on Snapper's shoulder, but Snapper grabbed hold of it, squeezing it tightly in his grasp.
"What about the princess?" Barshall complained. "How are we supposed to find her now?"
"We should inform the royal guards," Snapper suggested. "The Voiceless Viper somehow slithered his way inside the city."
Barshall lowered his head in frustration.
"So it seems," Jude said, shaking his hand from Snapper's grasp. "I've heard the stories, but seeing one of his victims in person... it's so… surreal."
Upon hearing Jude's words, I raised an eyebrow.
If he's an experienced detective then shouldn't he have worked on cases like this in the past?
I realized there might've been a chance that Jude was from another region, so wasn't present during the Viper's reign of terror.
But what was he doing in East Contra? Is there a higher crime rate here than in other regions?
As I thought this, Snapper began to walk toward the front door.
"Snapper, wait—" Amber grabbed his arm while looking concerned.
He turned to her with a blank expression.
"I said it before, didn't I? He and I weren't that close, so you save the sympathy speech."
"... I'm so sorry."
"Didn't you hear what I just said? What are you apologizing for? It's not like you're the one that put a hole through his brain."
I then witnessed Jude entering the bathroom to closely examine Larg's lifeless body, which was lying against the floor.
"You know, this kinda reminds me of a novel I read a while ago called Dark Dreams," he began. "It was about a man named Bexter Norman."
"Bexter Norman?" I repeated, thinking the name sounded quite strange.
"He was an expert blood splatter analyst, who helped with cases just like these. However, none of those murder cases he worked on were ever solved."
"Why's that?" I asked, growing more curious about this 'Bexter' character.
"Well, it's simple really... The entire time, they'd been trying to find this anonymous killer, but it turns out it had just been Bexter all along. Cool story, right?"
Jude smiled sadistically, which made me shiver with unease.
He then turned his gaze toward the walls that surrounded the room.
"This is quite strange…"
"What is it?"
"... The bathroom is clean."
At first I didn't understand what he meant by that, but as I entered the bathroom, I was soon able to catch on.
He's right.
Larg's armor and clothes were the only things stained with blood while the walls and the ceiling were all completely untarnished.
I also noticed the lack of blood around his wound, which–for its size–seemed quite out of place.
"Hmm? What do we have here?" Jude cautiously lifted Larg's hand, uncovering a sheet of paper trapped underneath, which also bore no blood stains.
There were words written on the paper as though it were a letter.
Jude started gathering everyone to inspect it.
"Hey, Snap!" He called to him before he could exit the cottage. "I found something hidden underneath the body... I think the Viper's trying to send us a message."
"What?" Snapper turned around to see Jude approaching him with the letter, which seemed like it was purposely left here for us to find.
"Well, what does it say?" Barshall asked eagerly.
Jude examined the sheet and began to read it out.
"The past is a scar that remains attached to us like a limb. At times it appears we can never be rid of our scars entirely. But what if one were to cut off that limb? Would we then free ourselves from it–the memories that have held us all captivefor so long?"
"What the hell does that mean?" Amber asked with a confused expression.
"It's a riddle," Snapper answered.
"He's right," Jude said while rereading the message. "'The memories that have held us all captive', huh? What if he's the one that kidnapped the princess, and he's holding her captive somewhere."
"That's completely absurd!" Barshall yelled in protest. "What could he possibly want with Princess Meleragine!?"
"He could be holding her for ransom."
"Not bad, Amber, but I've got one better…" Jude began to add. "He could be trying to cause chaos in the city by making people fear him again, reminding them that he's still out there. That could be why he also mentions the 'past' in the riddle."
Using his finger, Jude traced the words on the page.
I began to sense something off about the letter.
The riddle talked about freeing oneself from the past by cutting off a limb.
The past…
Jude thought the Viper was referring to his former glory as a monument of fear within the Garmen region.
But what if he was referring to a particular event in his past? Like something relating to his downfall instead.
Maybe it's about revenge?
I watched Maybelle's head rise suddenly like an alarm bell was ringing inside of it.
At that same moment, a strange light seemed to flash from the window.
"What?"
Everyone else seemed to notice it the second I turned, and Snapper, sensing something dangerous approaching, yelled out a warning.
"Everyone, get down!"
In that instant, something was fired from that light in the distance, which crashed through the window, completely shattering it before nearly hitting Jude right in the head.
Fortunately, Snapper was able to dive and push him out of the way in time to avoid it.
"Is everyone alright?!" he asked after rising to his feet and noticing that the light was gone.
"Yeah, but what the hell was that!?" Amber exclaimed as everyone stood up.
Jude, dusting himself off, replied: "Perhaps it was the Viper? He might have lured us into a trap to assassinate us."
"A trap? Why the hell would he—?"
"Father!" May quickly dashed out of the house through the front door.
"Maybelle!?" Amber cried, albeit too late.
"What's going on with her?"
"It's the Viper," I said to Snapper. "I think he's come for revenge."
"Wait, does that mean...!?"
"The rest of you should inform the Royal Guards," I instructed, while approaching the front door. "I'll follow May."
"Wait, Wolf—!"
Before Amber could say anything more, I had already sprinted out of the house.
The world around me was beginning to darken as the sun initiated its descent below the horizon.
That riddle… It seemed like it was a message specifically meant for May to hear, and the Viper orchestrated this whole thing just so she could discover it.
Could this be another trap? I wondered.
It was almost like the Viper had been watching our every move this entire time.
I then remembered the bad feeling I had at the Southern entrance of East Contra–the moment I turned toward the forest.
Was that him? Was he stalking us from the very beginning?
If that was the case, then I had to catch up to May and warn her… She and her father could be in grave danger.